I am a stay at home wife, mommy, musician and lover of all things creative. I am very passionate about living simply and learning to do without in order to give more and live more. I am living simply in my urban neighborhood, trying to learn self-sufficiency in a time when we are becoming more dependent on the corporate world to survive. I am blogging to pass on the things I am learning as I try to become a better homesteader.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

The chickens have gotten a lot bigger and sadly we lost one:( It didn't die but one morning I went out to check on Ellie and she had grown even more over night her awkwardness replaced with really colorful feathers and she came running over and her beak was all goofy looking. she had something called crossed beak, or scissor beak. I did a bit of research and everything said she should be fine just make sure she's eating well and so on. Well a few days ago, I went out to feed the girls some carrot tops and poor Ellie couldn't grab them. She had for a few days been pecking at the feeder constantly and so I sat and watched her and she basically got a little food every five or six pecks and managed to spill all the rest of the feed on the ground. When I let the girls out to free range Ellie stayed in and pecked at her feed and then the next morning she ran straight to the feeder and started her routine. I finally decided that I had to replace her as I couldn't have her throwing feed everywhere and it's important to me that my chickens free range and she couldn't pick up anything with her beak. So... I called the feed store where I got her and took her back they have some layers they keep in the back to sell eggs so he put her in with them to see how she does. I then called my friend over at East Central Ministries as they are raising pullets to sell and I checked to see if they could sell me one early. They told me to come by and take my pick so yesterday I went and picked up my new barred rock she is probably about a month older but has been doing great with the other girls. Asher named her Kala Polka Dot hope she lives up to that name.

Molly the Leghorn (I think) & Kala Polka Dot the new Barred Rock

I also have been taking the hens to various schools around town and talking to the kids about them. They love it and the girls do pretty well. I really only take Annie or Duffie as they seem to be the most social of the bunch. Today I got to go to Ash's preschool for show and tell. Fun was had by all and I learned that preschoolers have a very short attention span.

Annie the Buff Orphington hoping for a special treat.

Last but not least we have been getting awesome little salad tomatoes from the garden and today we ate our first zucchini. For winter, I planted a ton of salad and peas and one managed to pop up where I did not plant it (weird the goings on when I am not watching) and I noticed a few salad sprouts so hopefully they make it this time.